American billionaire Elon Musk has reached an agreement on Monday, April 25, to buy the social network Twitter for 44 billion dollars. ” Freedom of expression is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital public square where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated. “, he said in a statement.
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The founder of Tesla and SpaceX has succeeded: Twitter belongs to him. The information was already almost official since a tweet from Elon Musk, which fell at the end of the day. ” I hope even my worst critics stay on Twitter, because that’s what free speech means. “, had written the man with 83.5 million subscribers.
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
The talks, which seemed uncertain last week, accelerated over the weekend after Mr Musk courted the company’s shareholders, presenting them with the financial details of his offer. Twitter then began to negotiate with the billionaire the acquisition of the company at the proposed price of 54.20 dollars per share.
The quotation of the action Twitter, a company introduced on the stock exchange in 2013, was suspended on Monday on Wall Street. Several media had reported, from the start of the day, that the announcement of an agreement between Elon Musk and the board of directors on a takeover of the platform was imminent, which also boosted the action of the social network. .
Elon Musk had proposed in mid-April to take over the entire group and withdraw the platform from the New York Stock Exchange. He had also indicated last week that he had secured $ 46.5 billion to complete this acquisition thanks to two bank loans from Morgan Stanley, as well as his personal fortune.
Elon Musk would be the richest man in the world. Forbes estimated his fortune at $269 billion. He recently held more than 9% of the social network’s ordinary shares. Shortly after entering the capital, he was invited to join the board of directors, but he declined this offer.
He promises to transform the social network to make it ” the platform for freedom of expression around the world », seeing it as a question of « civilization “. Some observers believe that Mr. Musk could in particular reauthorize deleted accounts, like that of Donald Trump and some of his supporters.
One of the other axes on which the boss of Tesla could bet would be to make Twitter more profitable and to increase the growth of its number of users. He has already suggested several changes, for example adding an “edit” button to correct a tweet a posterioriafter publication, and changes in the paid formula.